Mechanical metamaterials offer exotic properties based on local control of cell geometry and their global configuration into structures and mechanisms. Historically, these have been made as continuous, monolithic structures with additive manufacturing, which affords high resolution and throughput, but is inherently limited by process and machine constraints. To address this issue, we present a construction system for mechanical metamaterials based on discrete assembly of a finite set of parts, which can be spatially composed for a range of properties such as rigidity, compliance, chirality, and auxetic behavior. This system achieves desired continuum properties through design of the parts such that global behavior is governed by local mechanisms. We describe the design methodology, production process, numerical modeling, and experimental characterization of metamaterial behaviors. This approach benefits from incremental assembly, which eliminates scale limitations, best-practice manufacturing for reliable, low-cost part production, and interchangeability through a consistent assembly process across part types.

机械超材料提供了基于细胞几何形状的局部控制及其结构和机制的全局配置的奇异特性。从历史上看，这些都是通过增材制造制成连续的整体结构，可提供高分辨率和吞吐量，但本质上受到工艺和机器限制的限制。为了解决这个问题，我们提出了一种基于有限零件集离散组装的机械超材料构造系统，该系统可以在空间上组合以获得一系列属性，例如刚性、柔度、手性和拉胀行为。该系统通过部件设计实现了所需的连续特性，使得全局行为由局部机制控制。我们描述了超材料行为的设计方法、生产过程、数值建模和实验表征。这种方法受益于增量装配，消除了规模限制，实现可靠、低成本零件生产的最佳实践制造，以及通过跨零件类型的一致装配过程实现的互换性。